Broughton: Parents should say 'Yes' to Instagram

It's pitch-dark out. You have your teen in the car. "Drop me off here," he points into the blackness of the night. You wave goodbye as he disappears. You don't know where he's going. You don't know who he's going to hang out with. You don't know what he will be doing.

This is exactly what it's like when you let your children go online and you don't monitor what they're doing there.

I'm always baffled when a parent is oblivious to their kid's online life. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, these are all worlds that their generation will have to live in, they'll have to navigate. As parents we need to teach them how, because they'll have to make important decisions within them.

Kids have to harness self-control, good judgment and temperance when using social media. I don't know if you've been around a teen lately, but it's not something that comes naturally. Teens need their parents' guidance.

If you have a preteen or teen, they are probably on Instagram or they have asked you to download the social media photo-driven app. I say – do it! Instagram is the best place for kids to begin their online life because of its privacy capacity and ease of use.

My 12-year-old daughter has been on Instagram for more than a year. She has a private account. She has to ask me before she accepts a new follower (who can view her photos). I look at her account every night. I go through and see who comments on her photos. I look through her friends' photos and look at their comments. You can learn a lot about a kid by looking at their Instagram photos.

Together we've dealt with mean girls, inappropriate comments and too many "duck" faces to count. I would much rather teach her in the more tame environment of Instagram than the more potentially dangerous and destructive worlds of Facebook, SnapChat and Vine, where lapses in judgment can be more serious.